Jackson turns back Generals in FL opener

Published: August 31, 2000 12:00 AM

Wooster girls soccer coach Ian Holford went out on a limb in the preseason when he said his Generals were poised to knock Jackson from its accustomed perch atop the Federal League.

That limb got a whole lot weaker Wednesday evening, though, as the Polar Bears opened league play with a 2-0 blanking of the Generals.

If the Generals are to fulfill Holford's prediction, they'll have to hope that someone else knocks off Jackson, and that hope could even be considered fleeting. A lunar eclipse has been more common than a Jackson loss within the FL, considering the Polar Bears have suffered just one league setback since the FL began contesting girls soccer some 10 years ago.

"We have to come from behind now, but it is still possible," Holford said. "We have to hope that Jackson ends up losing while we win all the rest of our league games. It's no longer in our hands."

Wednesday's loss was the Generals' third in three games this season, and Holford has watched the opposition outscore his squad 13-2 thus far. Still, he's not ready to begin pushing any panic buttons.

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"The season is still young and there's still plenty of hope for (the offense)," he said of Wooster's early season travails. "They can do it and I think it's something that will come eventually.

"Playing Jackson early in the season is obviously something we might not prefer to do, but we don't have much choice when it comes to the league schedule."

Against Jackson, the Generals' tough luck was highlighted by a pair of near-misses occurring in each half.

Late in the first half, junior forward Candy Condry corralled a throw-in on the right side of the box and let fly a shot that beat Jackson goalkeeper Angie Much to the far side. Unfortunately for the Generals, the left post was positioned perfectly for the save and deflected Condry's shot wide.

Jackson capitalized shortly thereafter when midfielder Aleesha Jacquet pounded home a rebound past Wooster keeper Jaimie Gesler with just 2:20 remaining until half. Julie Scourfield got an assist after directing Sarah Couch's corner kick toward Gesler, who couldn't control the ball, enabling Jacquet to pounce on it inside the box.

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"It was a corner kick and then a deflection," Jackson coach Frank Gagliardi said after seeing his team up its mark to 2-1. "We've talked about sacrificing our bodies in front of the goal and that's pretty much what happened. One of our girls decided she was going to throw herself at the ball, got a touch on it and poked it home.

"We haven't been real strong at that so far, so it was nice to see that kind of sacrifice."

Despite the late goal, Wooster responded with another charge as a shot by Condry with time running down forced Much to make a diving save.

"That goal gave Jackson a boost, but then Candy came down and had a good scoring chance, so we were able to come off the field a little elevated," Holford said. "When the second half began, we started to play much better. That's when we really started to carry the play and keep the ball in their half of the field. We just weren't able to have anything to show for it."

Less than two minutes into the second half, Kara Moskowitz was awarded a free kick following a yellow card by Jackson's Morgan Spreng. Teeing the ball up from just outside the 18-yard box, Moskowitz drilled it past Jackson's wall but squarely off the crossbar, with ball rebounding into play.

Although Wooster created a few more scoring chances -- one coming off a Moskowitz corner -- the Generals never came as close to putting one past Much.

Jackson put the game away midway through the second half when Jen Shemory, who had slipped in unmarked on the left side, took Brittany Grinstead's feed and put it into an open net from point-blank range.

Wooster was dealt a significant blow 15 minutes into the game when midfielder and senior co-captain Sami Lytle got tangled up with Jackson's Scourfield on the far side. In obvious pain while lying on her back, Lytle was eventually carted off the field following a lengthy timeout. Junior Sarah Hoffer and freshman Lori Taylor split time as Lytle's replacement, but her absence was still felt.

"It was her left knee. That was definitely a big loss for us," Holford said. "When we changed our lineup we lost her strength in the middle of the field and that's something that we need.

"Besides her ability on the field we also missed her leadership just as much. We can only hope that it's not too serious and she's back relatively quickly.